Football player&#39;s equipment



April 2, 1940. sM 2,196,124 r FOOTBALL PLAYER s EQUIPMENT Filed May 19,1958- Patented Apr. 2, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE I 2,196,124FOOTBALL PLAYERS EQUIPMENT Herman E. Smith, Hampden-Sydney, Va.Application May 19, 1938, Serial No. 208,895

4 Claims.

This invention has reference to protective equipment for footballplayers and has for its principal object to supply an equipment whichaffords maximum protection to the wearers shoulder, collar-bone andribs, in case of impact with another player, or in case of a fall, andwhich minimizes both the liability of injury and also the injury toother players in cases of collision.

Another object of the invention is to provide an equipment of thecharacter specified above, which causes minimum interference with thewearers movements, permitting the unencumbered use of his members (hisarms particularly) in all the ordinary actions and incidents of footballplay. I

A further object of the invention is to supply to football players aprotective equipment of less bulk and weight, less cumbersome, easier toput on and off, and relatively less costly in construction, thanequipments now available which are intended to serve the same purpose.

' Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in thecourse of the description hereinafter given of what is atpresentregarded as the preferred embodiment of the invention. Preliminarily itmay be observed that, according to this invention the above stated andother advantageous objects are accomplished by the particularconstruction of the several parts or members of the equipment and by themanner in which they are assembled together in co-operative relationshipto form a one-piece protective equipment, as hereinafter described; theresult being a protective unit which guards shoulders, chest and ribs,rendering unnecessary the use of separate shoulder pads, rib-protectors,chestprotectors, special injury pads, and the like.

Further it is appropriate to state preliminarily that a particularlyuseful and valuable feature of the protective equipment herein describedis that the wearers shoulder does not come into direct contact with anypart of the equipment except the band beneath the shoulder piece, whichcontact is inconsequential. Therefore, all blows, regardless of theirforce or direction and regardless of the position of the wearers bodyand arms, are instantly distributed over a wide area of his person andare thereby rendered relatively harmless. It is believed that thisfeature of the invention will prevent many of the fractures of theshoulder and collar-bone, which are now so common and so serious.

In the accompanying drawing- Fig. 1 is a front elevation of oneembodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a like view of the right half of the protector, the wearersarm being extended upwardly;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the right half of the protector; and

Fig. 4 is a side view thereof, the shoulder cap being thrown back.

The protector comprises three principal parts: (1) a body-piece,comprising right and left parts, A, A, which are identical inconstruction; (2) a pivoted guard member B, for each body part; and (3)a shoulder cap C, for each shoulder. In order to simplify thedescription and drawing only the right half of the protector with itsthree parts is shown complete in Figs. 2, 3 and 4.

Body-piece or member A is preferably made of molded fiber, which islight, tough and sufliciently resilient to serve the important purposeof distributing the force of an impact over a wide area of the wearersbody. Member A has an extension 5 of the same material, which connectsthe front and back of member A and fits over the wearers shoulder, butpreferably does not rest thereon, even through an intervening cushion;but, as shown in Fig. 3, an intervening band B may be interposed,similar to what is known as the cantilever band, which'is detached andseparated from part 5 directly above the shoulder,

there being a free space between, as shown in Fig. 3.

The body-piece A, including part 5, is preferably lined with a suitablepadding, such as commonly used in equipment of this character; as. forexample, the material known commercially as French foam rubber coveredwithairplane cloth.

The shoulder band 6 may be made of the same or of any light paddingmaterial suitable 'for the purpose.

Guard arm B is formed of a strip or band approximately semi-circular inshape of suitable resilient metal, such as duraluminum, and suitablycushioned or padded as is well understood. Near each extremity of thisguard arm or member is a pivot hole 1, for pivotalattachment of theguard member at each end to body piece A; the latter being provided,frontand back, with three complementary pivot holes 8 (Fig. 3), so thatguard B may be adjusted to fit wearers of different sizes.

It is important for the purposes of this invention that the guard member13 should be pivoted to the body A at a point which, when the equip mentis in use, is at a level considerably below the wearers armpit; theposition of the pivot being such that the arc described by themid-section 9 of guard member B is about the same distance always fromthe wearers person. As best shown in Fig. 4 the mid-section 9 of guard Bis curved downwardly out of the general line of the band or strip whichconstitutes said guard. This defleeting curve in the upper or inner edgeof the guard provides a wide clearance between it and the adjacent edgeof the extension 5 of body-piece A. This is considered an importantfeature of the invention, because it contributes materially to theaccomplishment of the objects thereof, as will be explained below.

Straps l0 attached at one end to body-piece A and at the other to guardB, limit the downward movement of the latter, holding it in the desiredposition, which may be varied by buckles H, or other adjusting means.

Shoulder cap C may be made of the same metal as guard member B and maybe covered with soft leather or other suitable material. It is attachedto part 5 by means of a short flexible leath strap [2, which serves as ahinge.

By reason of the construction of the members A, B and C, and theirpositions relative to each other when assembled to form a unitaryprotector as described, guard member B is normally (i. e. when thewearers arms above the elbow are hanging down) out of contact with thewearers person. Shoulder cap C is likewise out of contact with thewearer, for its is attached at one edge by means of flexible strip E2 tothe extension 5 of member A, and its opposite edge overlaps slightly themid-section 9 of guard arm B. It follows that the force of a blow uponshoulder cap C, when the parts are in this position, is completelywarded off from the shoulder and collarbone, thus minimizing thelikelihood of fracture of those parts and is instantly transmittedthrough guard-arm B and pivots 'l to body member A, by which it iswidely distributed over the wearers torso.

When, however, the wearers upper arm is extended, it makes contact withthe curved midsection 9 of guard arm B, causing it to swing upwardly onits pivots I. This movement-is practically unimpeded, since themid-section e of the guard arm slides freely under cap C until arm Breaches the position shown in Fig. 2. During this movement the guard armB is out of contact with the wearer, and its mid-section 9 is alwaysabout the same distance from the wearers shoulder. Therefore the partsmaintain the same operative positions and cooperate to afford the sameprotection as when in their normal positions. It will be observedthat,when the parts are in the respective positions shown in Fig. 2, themid-section of arm B is directly under cap C, and therefore will receivethe full force of a blow falling upon said cap. As will be evident fromFig. 1, all blows directed ,towards the wearers shoulder, from whateverreceived by arm B) rests directly and freely upon said arm, and becausearm B and cap C are entirely out of contact with the wearers body.Furthermore, the construction and relationship of said parts A, B and Care such that the wearers arm movements are unimpeded and his shoulderis equally protected when his arm is uplifted (as in Fig. 2) or in anintermediate position.

When the conventional injury pad is worn with a standard shoulder pad,as is usual, they combine to impede the movement of the players arms; itbeing impossible in that case to raise the arm over the head, asnecessary (or very desirable) in receiving forward passes. And when theconventional injury pad is used without a shoulder pad, its proximateedge is about at the level of the players ear when his arm is extendedupwards. Moreover, the ordinary injury pad and standard shoulder pad,when used together, constitute an equipment so heavy and cumbersome asto impede greatly the wearers movements and impair correspondingly hisefficiency as a player.

When, in using the equipment of the present invention, the wearers armis extended further in the direction of the vertical, shoulder cap Cwill continue to permit freedom of arm movement, assuming the positionshown in dotted lines, Fig. 2. In this position of the equipment theinwardly curved edge of the mid-section 9 of arm B makes possible thedesired movement of the players arm towards and over his head.

Thus it will be seen that by the present invention is provided aprotective equipment comprising several members assembled to form aunitary structure, which members cooperate to protect the wearersshoulder, chest and ribs, each member being dependent upon the othersfor its perfect function, and the whole being substantially lighter,less cumbersome and less costly than the devices now available for thesame purpose.

What is claimed is:

1. A protective equipment composed of two sections, each sectioncomprising a body-piece of stiff resilient material adapted to envelop apart of the wearers torso, a guard arm of rigid material swiveled frontand rear to said bodypiece, and a ringed shoulder cap which overlies andrests freely upon said guard arm.

2. A protective equipment as specified in claim 1, in which saidguard'arm is pivoted to said bodypiece at a point below the wearersarmpits so that the are described by its midsection is always about thesame distance from the wearers shoulders.

3. A protective equipment as specified in claim 1, in which themidsection of said guard arm is deflected out of the general linethereof in a direction away from the wearers body.

4. A protective equipment as specified in claim 1, having adjustingmeans whereby said guard arm may be adjusted to diiferent positionsrelative to said body-piece.

HERMAN E. SMITH.

